To be a smokejumper — the front-line firefighters who parachute into forest fires — in the US, you’ve already got to be a little unhinged. To do the same job in Russia, with antique equipment, for no pay, you must be certifiably insane.
The National Geographic has an in-depth feature following a band of Russian firefighters through their work, and the differences compared to US teams are stark.
Equipment is said to be incredibly simple — hand-made shovels, beating down fires with boughs, and burying it in sand is a far cry from an airliner dropping thousands of kilograms of retardant. It’s definitely worth the read
>> National Geographic